This Is Not Just Any Christmas Food Ad. M&S Food Brings Percy Pig To Life

Marks & Spencer is launching two Christmas campaigns today - one for its festive food and another for its Christmas clothing.

M&S Food’s campaign brings Percy Pig to life, voiced by Tom Holland, to showcase the very best festive food and gifts. Whilst M&S Clothing continues with ‘Anything but Ordinary’ - the musical ad shows off a range of clothing and encourages customers to make the entire season anything but ordinary.

The Food campaign, created by Grey London, sees the iconic Percy Pig brought to life for the very first time through market-leading animation. Percy, voiced by Tom Holland, is awakened in the dead of night by the magic of the Christmas fairy played by Dawn French.

The campaign will launch with a 60-second ad following a social campaign to tease the voice of Percy #whoispercypig

As part of the biggest campaign for several years, the team has also created a further seven ads showing Percy exploring different food products, meaning new content will be released from now until New Year. The campaign will also be executed across the full range of marketing formats including all social channels with bespoke content and, for the first time, a TikTok takeover. The retailer will also heavily utilise its owned channels throughout the season – including iconic Percy Pig carrier bags.

Sharry Cramond, director of marketing for M&S Food, said: “The M&S Christmas Food range this year is better than ever and who better to tell customers about our delicious Christmas food range than the national treasure and much-loved M&S icon himself, Percy Pig. Of course, he couldn't have just any voice, and having Tom Holland give Percy Pig his first words is about as exciting as it gets. Added to that the voice of the one and only Dawn French as the Christmas fairy – it’s the stuff of Christmas dreams!!”

Creatives Sam Haynes and John Gibson at Grey London said, “It’s been a lot of fun, working with an incredible team and bringing the iconic Percy Pig to life. We hope we’ve done him justice for his first outing, bringing some much needed Christmas magic.”

The clothing campaign created by ODD, shot by Autumn de Wilde and starring Madisyn Ritland, brings to life a whimsical musical world with the star of the ad dancing through the iconic moments of Christmas – from shopping for presents to having fun in family PJs. The ad is a continuation of the brand platform ‘Anything but Ordinary’ that M&S launched for Autumn/Winter.

As with the Food campaign, the creative will be executed across a range of channels – from print cover wraps to an activation at Waterloo station. M&S will also be taking over three large scale sites bringing to life some of the theatrical magic with hand painted murals. Within TV advertising, Video on Demand will continue to be key, and M&S says that it will be the first UK retailer to use ‘Flowcode’ – an innovation which allows a QR code to be seamlessly worked into the ad.

CREDITS

Food Credits

Head of Creative

Rich Robinson @ M&S

Copywriter and Art Director

Sam Haynes & John Gibson @ Grey London

Film Production Lead

Rachel Amess (Chops) @ M&S

Film Production Assistant

Charlotte Kirk @ M&S

Animation/live action directors

DOM&NIC @ Outsider

Animation/live action producer

John Madsen

Food director

Gus Filgate @ Bite Collective

Food producer

Alex Katz

Edit

Edit house (live action): Final Cut

Editor (live action): Ed Cheesman

Edit producer (live action): Maggie McDermott

Edit house (food): Marshall Street

Editor (food): John Mayes

Post-production

Post facility: MPC

Post producer: Ryan Hancocks

Colourist: Matthieu Toullet

2D Lead: Guy Lubin

CG Lead: Andy Steele

Animation Lead: David Bryan

Audio

Sound studio: Clearcut Sound Studios

Sound engineer: James Clark

Composer: Charlie Smith

Marketing Director

Sharry Cramond @ M&S

Head of Brand Comms

Robbie Black @ M&S

Head of Advertising, Media & Sponsorship

Kate Ilott @ M&S

Advertising & Brand Manager

Katie Hooper (Hoops) @ M&S

Media Strategy Manager

Katy Allison @ M&S

Percy Pig Brand Manager

Meagan Hempenstall.

Design Lead

Barbara Yiapanis

Media Agency

Mindshare

Clothing Credits

Film Director

Autumn De Wilde

Director of Photography

Ben Todd

Executive Creative Director

Nick Stickland

Creative Director

Turhan Osman

Art Director

Emma Jordan

Agency Producers

Dannie Stewart, Lawrie McLintock

Account Team

Sarah Johnston, Marin Daley-Hawkins

Production Company

Anonymous Content

Production Company Producers

James Waters, Juliet Naylor

Post Production House

MPC

Post Producer

Saskia Delius

Edit House

Final Cut

Editor

Miky Wolf

Sound Studio

750

Sound Producer

Aishah Amodu

Sound Designer

Sam Ashwell, Mike Bovill